Wednesday, September 6, 2017

(Bogota) The Pope's visit to Colombia, which began on Wednesday, caused the entire country to be in a state of unrest. While, for political and religious reasons, some criticism of the Pope's visit was practiced, the symbol of the Marxist guerrilla organization FARC was projected on the facade of the Cathedral of Bogota during the night of the 1st of September. With this emblematic provocation, the FARC presented itself to the public as a political party at the end of its founding party.

At present, almost everything revolves around the communist "Narcoguerillas." Colombia's left-wing president Juan Manuel Santos (Social Party of National Unity, Partido de la U) had signed a peace agreement with the Marxist underground organization FARC in November 2016, although the people had rejected such an agreement only a few weeks earlier in a referendum.

Former flag of the FARC

The FARC rebels, defeated militarily by Santos' predecessor Uribe, have been seeing their future as a political party since then. After the failure of the armed struggle, they want to take part in the country's policy in a new way. Critics accuse Santos of looking at future left alliances in order to cement his own power and prevent the return of the political right to government.

The FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army) had been established as the militant arm of the Colombian Communist Party in 1965 to forcibly seize power in the country, based on the Cuban model and Soviet support. The 50 years of FARC terrorism has cost more than 200,000 lives. Only the hard military attitude of President Alvaro Uribe Velez (2002 - 2010) put an end to the ghost. His successor, Santos, Uribe was not allowed to stand for a third mandate according to the constitution, went the other way and put the FARC into the political system of the country. The motto is, from a guerrilla movement to political party. Many Colombians disagree, as the result of the referendum last year showed.

The Pope as the most important public ally of the left "peace treaty"

Santos found on the international level in Pope Francis the most important ally. The head of the Catholic Church, because of his sympathy for leftist groups, also known as leftist radical groups, supports the integration of the communist narcoguerrillas, so named because it was financed mainly from drug trafficking.

Francis made a visit to the country dependent on the acceptance of the peace agreement. Another aspect, which caused considerable reservations in some parts of the Colombian population against the imminent Pope's visit.

In addition to the political aspects, there are also strong religious reservations in Colombia against Pope Francis. Among Latin Americans, their attitude to various, relevant, topics is seen more critically than in Europe. At the end of July, José Galat Noumer, one of the most famous Catholics of Colombia, former Rector of the University of La Gran Columbia and a successful Catholic television entrepreneur, was excommunicated for "persistent criticism of the pope." Apparently, direct intervention from the Vatican at the Colombian Bishops' Conference was decisive. Before the Pope's visit they wanted to make a clean table.

The criticism has not been silenced, however, as a report from the Radio network RCN Radio showed at the weekend. A priest, who wanted to remain anonymous in order not to endanger his participation in a debate with Pope Francis, exercised severe criticism of the "direction" which Francis is giving to the Church. He knows at least 90 other priests who share the same opinion. He wanted to present his reservations to the Pope during the meeting, which is scheduled for the first day of his visit. He would also tell him that "many believe that he is associated with Freemasonry."

FARC is constituted as a political police: Start with "typically left-radical provocation"

As RCN Radio reports, "many" Colombians are convinced that Francis is "a communist".

This critical climate was further heated up by an incident last weekend. In the late evening of September 1, the new political symbol of the FARC was projected onto the façade of the Bogota Cathedral, the Church of the Primate of Colombia, and the mother church of the whole country.

New FARC symbol: red rose with red star

The previous, warlike Eastern Bloc iconography with Kalashnikov was abandoned. Instead, the new logo shows a stylized red rose, including the lettering FARC. In the middle of the rose is a five-pointed, red star. Observers speak of a conscious approach to the symbolism of the Socialist International to find international support for the entry into representative parliamentarism. The Red Star stands for the ideological conviction. The name FARC has been retained. According to the founding meeting, which took place from 27 August to 1 September, FARC is no longer for Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), but for Fuerza Alternativa Revolucionaria del Comun (Alternative Revolutionary Force Colombia," is meant).

After the collapse of the Eastern bloc and the end of the Soviet Union, the never-forbidden Communist Party of Colombia almost disbanded. In 1993 it distanced itself for the first time from its military arm FARC. Last July, the "reconciliation" and the announcement that a "new party" together with the FARC was to be launched and to stand in the 2018 parliamentary elections.

Founding party meeting with an anti-Christian or "pro-Church" provocation

"Total rejection," Msgr. Mercado said, is a challenge for FARC

The new party was presented to the public on 1 September as the beginning of the founding party. A festival was held at Plaza de Bolivar in the center of Bogota. On this occasion, the new symbol of the left-wing party was projected onto the façade of the cathedral. A "typical, left-radical provocation" as it is called in Bogota. A few days before the beginning of the Pope's visit it was, as some say, a provocative but equally emblematic gesture.

It is provocative because Colombian bishops, because of their painful experience with communism and their hostility to the church, rejected the peace agreement a year ago during the referendum. Emblematic, because indirectly, Pope Francis has been called as a kind of godfather of the transformation process from guerrilla organization to a political party. President Santos and government representatives are not tired of establishing a link between the two events. The FARC confirmed this view with the light projection. The Vatican has so far denied such a connection and speaks of a "pastoral visit."

Image of Our Lady of Chiquinquirá

Procession of the Miraculous Image of Chiquinquirá to the Cathedral of Bogota

Just a few hours before the incident, the miraculous image of Our Lady of Chiquinquira, the patroness of Colombia, had been carried in procession in the same place. The image of Our Lady rarely leaves its usual place of storage in the Basilica of Chiquinquira. Because of the imminent Pope's visit, however, it was temporarily transferred to Bogota and displayed in a chapel of the cathedral. There, Pope Francis will visit. There, the faithful can also revere it, after the Pope's visit, it will be brought back to the Chiquinquirá, some 135 kilometers from Bogota.

The Metropolitan of Bogota, Mons. Pedro Mercado, showed his anger on Twitter with a "total rejection" of a photo of the FARC projection on the facade of the cathedral.

The sometimes contemptuous reactions that followed on Twitter reveal the spirit accomplished by the adherents of FARC who have now become part of the global left, for which Pope Francis shows such astonishing sympathies.

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Cardinal Ling had proclaimed the Gospel without permission from the government. The three years in prison were necessary for his conversion and purification, he says retrospectively - with VIDEO
Pakse

(kath.net/CWN/jg)
Louis-Marie Ling Mangkhanekhoun, apostolic vicar of Pakse (Laos) and one of the cardinals who were created on 28 June, spent three years in prison during his communist regime.

His "offense" was to proclaim the gospel in villages and prisons without permission from the government. In 1984 the then 40-year-old was arrested and accused of "propaganda for Jesus".

He was in prison three years with chains on my arms and legs, he recalls. The time was essential for his inner formation. It was necessary for the "conversion and purification" of his person and also for others, he says retrospectively.

Rome Reports - Cardinal Ling from Laos spent three years in communist prisons: "For me it was like another novitiate" (English) Photo: Symbolbild

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

(Moscow) Pictures of the cross procession in Saint Petersburg from September 12th. The procession led from the Kazan Cathedral over the famous Nevsky Prospect to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery.

Icon of Alexander Nevski

The Rurikid Alexander Newski, Prince of Novgorod (from 1249 Grand Prince of Kiev), brought the advance of the Swedes into Russian territory to a halt at the Battle of the Neva in 1240, and in 1242 in the Battle of Peipus also that of the Teutonic Order. He has been officially honored by the Russian Orthodox Church since 1547 as a saint. The Nevsky Prospekt, a 300-year-old grand boulevard of 4.5 kilometers, connects the Tsar's winter palace to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery at the other end. In the monastery, the bones of the Saint Prince Rurikid are buried.

Along the boulevard you will also find the Kazan Cathedral, erected more than 200 years ago. It was built with St. Peter's in Rome as a model. The cathedral was built over an older predecessor, the Church of the Virgin Mary. It is named after an icon of the Mother of Kazan who is venerated in the cathedral.

Kazan Cathedral

The church is considered a memorial church for the victorious defense against Napoleon's campaign of 1812. In it, Field Marshal Michail Kutusov is buried, who as the Russian commander-in-chief, directed the defense. The Field Marshal had prayed before the fighting in the just finished church and asked the Mother of God for help.

After the Communist October Revolution, the cathedral was plundered and devastated. In 1918 the Archpriest of the Church, the philosopher Ornatsky, suffered martyrdom together with his two sons. Ornatsky had celebrated a requiem for the victims of the Communists. Shortly after, he and his two sons were then arrested. He was allowed to say a prayer for those condemned to death on a cliff above the Finnish Gulf, then he, his sons and 30 other men were shot and their bodies thrown over the cliffs into the sea.

Cross-process through the Nevsky Prospect 2016

In 1922 all the valuables, liturgical implements, and icons were confiscated by the Soviet government, and the cathedral was transformed into a museum of atheism in 1932.

In November 1990, the Sacred Liturgy was celebrated for the first time in consultation with the Museum Directorate - the museum has renamed the Museum of Religious History after the end of the Soviets. In 1999 the evacuation of the museum and the return of the cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church was agreed. The transfer was completed in 2001. In 2002 the icon of the Mother of Kazan was returned to the church. Since 2017, the cathedral has once again been the seat of the metropolitan of Novgorod and Saint Petersburg.

After more than 90 years, the first cross-procession took place in 2013, which commemorates the transfer of the relics of the Rurikid Prince Nevsky to the monastery named after him at the end of the Nevsky Prospect. The video shows recordings of the fourth cross procession since its revival (September 2016).

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

(Beijing) In the early morning hours of the day, the Catholic underground bishop Casimir Wang Milu of Tianshui in Gansu Province died in the People's Republic of China. Msgr. Wang was 74 years old. He was not recognized by the Communist government as a bishop. His burial will take place on 18 February. There is currently no corresponding acknowledgment from the regime.

Bishop's chair of Tianshui vacant since 1955

Officially, the bishop's chair in Central China's Tianshui has only been vacant since 1972, but in fact it has been unoccupied since 1955. Tianshui was a mission area of ​​the German Capuchins. In 1946, Pope Pius XII. made the area into a diocese. The first diocesan bishop was the German Capuchin Peter Gratian Grimm. With the Communist takeover of power, the suffering period began for the Christians of the country. In 1955 all foreign bishops and priests of the country were expelled. Bishop Grimm also had to leave China and went to Indonesia in the mission area of ​​the Capuchins. With his death in 1972, the last official bishop of the Chinese diocese died.

In 1981, Mr. Casimir Wang was consecrated to be the underground bishop of Tianshui. The secret bishop gave him Bishop Peter Joseph Fan Xueyan of Baoding in Hebei, one of the charismatic leading figures of the underground Church. Bishop Fan spent 17 years in prisons and labor camps as well as the last five years of his life under house arrest and constant interrogation. China's underground Catholics are convinced that he did not die of "lung failure" in 1992, as it was officially called, but the consequences of torture. His beatification proceedings were initiated.

Ten years for Christ in prison

In 1983, Bishop Wang was also tracked and arrested by the regime. In Beijing he was sentenced to ten years in prison. Having been released after serving the punishment in the 1990s, he made use of the special powers the Pope had given to the Chinese underground bishops to consecrate other bishops without the direct consent of the Holy See. He had made use of it " excessively," which for him, as Asianews says, he had been suspended by Rome, despite his ardent zeal for evangelization and his inviolable fidelity to the pope. He stayed in the province of Gansu and continued to work as a pastor.

In 2007 the special authority for the consecration of bishops was given by Pope Benedict XVI. in his letter to the Chinese Catholics in general.

Bishop Wang was born in 1942 as the son of a Catholic family. In 1979, he was ordained a priest. His younger brother, John Wang, also a priest, was consecrated to the underground bishop of Tianshui in 2011.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

All the Pope's horses and all the Pope's men, couldn't put poor Maduro together again!

Edit: Maduro has been globetrotting lately, attempting to gather support for his oppressive regime in various quarters, including fellow traveller, Pope Bergoglio. He may have to go into exile. See the mass demonstrations live, here.

Caracas (AFP) - Opponents of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro rallied in the streets Wednesday and he convened a crisis security meeting as the leftist leader resisted their efforts to drive him from power.

Thousands of opposition supporters began to gather at seven points around Caracas in the morning and said they planned to march and join up in the east of the capital.

It is a key test of strength in a mounting political and economic crisis that is destabilizing the South American oil producer.

The socialist president and center-right-dominated opposition accuse each other of mounting a "coup" in a volatile country rich in oil but short of food.

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Pope Francis: Blessing of a representation of Our Lady ofAparecida with a hint of political engagement

(Rome) Last Saturday the daily bulletin of the Vatican announced that Pope Francis in the Vatican Gardens has blessed a bronze statue of Our Lady of Aparecida. It's a religious act mingled in a "strange" way with a policy that is related to the dismissal of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

The previous day, the Cuban press agency Prensa Latina reported that Rousseff's predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's president from 2003-2011, wrote the Pope a letter about the "serious" political situation "in Brazil and in the world". Rousseff and Lula belong to the same party, the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), the left "Workers' Party".

Cuba published Lula's letter upon the impeachment of Brazil's President

Prensa Latina is a press agency controlled by the communist regime in Cuba. The fact that they published the Lula-letter in full, recognizes the regular connections between the PT and the island state of the Castro brothers.

Lula letter to Pope Francis

Lula informed Pope Francis in the letter that "conservative" political forces at work are on the "edge of legality" - wanting to "prevent" a "continuity and progressive projects and social development and free inclusion" by the Workers Party (PT).

In another letter Lula praised the "achievements" of the Workers' Party and sharply condemns the attacks against Dilma Rousseff. In order to take steps to "criminalize" Rousseff and the "social movements", especially the PT.

Lula demands that can the people must be able choose its President "freely" by which he implied that free elections by the "conservative" forces are under threat. , The Lula wrote: the "conservative" forces "fear that the people will choose me in 2018," and would therefore make him president again. The Brazilian constitution allows only two consecutive terms of a head of state. Meanwhile, Lula could run again.

Same letter from Venezuelan President Maduro

On Saturday it was announced that Pope Francis had received the exact same letter from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. In addition to the Cuban contacts, the common action of Lula and the "Bolivarian" President Maduro, reveals a political landscape that is situated with varying shades of social-democratic and communist, clearly left.

Observers doubt that it was an "accident". The letters and the cooperation of the Brazilian-Venezuelan-Cuban Left and the blessing of the statue of the Virgin of Aparecida, a Brazilian Marian shrine, "may be a coincidence, but it does not look like one," said Secretum meum mihi .

Pope Francis used the blessing to take a position on the situation in Brazil and did this by mixing religious and political aspects. The pontiff said that Brazil is experiencing "sad moments." That gesture and words as partisanship for Dilma Rousseff and the Workers' Party are to be understood, which the "Pope-Girlfriend" and Pope's biographer, Elisabetta Piqué assures with an article in the Argentine newspaper La Nacion.

With the blessing of the statue of Mary, Francis announced differently than initially indicated, that he would not travel to Brazil in 2017 to take part in 300-year celebrations of the Marian shrine of Aparecida.

Piqué's articles in "La Nacion" on Pope Francis and his "Brazil-option" crisis

Francis asked Our Lady of Aparecida on Saturday, "to protect the Brazilian people in this sad moment and the poor, the marginalized, the abandoned elderly, to protect the street children; to save her people with social justice in the love of Jesus."

Piqué's article leaves no doubt that a certain political option is meant to be protected by the Mother of God. To say it in the sense of Lula and Maduro: "May the Mother of God sustain the left-wing government in power and keep the 'conservative' forces them away," said Francisco Fernandez de la Cigoña.

Already in the course of the presidential campaign in Argentina, Pope Francis had chosen the left option and preferred the Peronist candidate, but the people elected the "conservative" opposition candidate, which has since led to a series of tensions in relations.

The same signaling by the Catholic Church leader took place on his Latin American visit in 2015. During the meetings with the leftist president of Ecuador and Bolivia were demonstratively friendly, Francis showed the "conservative" president of Paraguay the cold shoulder, to put it cautiously. In fact, he attacked him openly and completely without foundation.

Friday, July 15, 2016

Archbishop Vinzenz Nikolaus Prennushi of Tirana-Durres, who fellvictim to the oppressive Communist dictatorship, will be beatifiedas a martyr.

(Rome / Tirana) The former Archbishop of Durazzo, Msgr. Vincent Nicholas (Vincenc Kolë) Prennushi is to be beatified along with 37 companions this upcoming November 5th. The archbishop of the Franciscan Order was tortured to death in 1949 by the Co
mmunist authorities in Albania.

In 1944 in the wake of World War II, Albania was taken over by the Communists.Within a short time the Chinese Communist Party established a dictatorship under the leadership of Enver Hoxha on the Stalinist model. In 1947 the Catholic Archbishop Prennushi of Durazzo (today, the Archdiocese Tirana-Durres) was arrested as an "enemy of the people".

Communists Tortured Archbishop Death

Hoxha demanded the Archbishop turn away from Rome and the submit to the Communist regime. Msgr. Prennushi was expected to give his name for the establishment of a National Church obedient to the regime. Despite severe torture, the archbishop refused until he succumbed to the consequences of severe beatings on 19 March 1949.

This coming November 5th, the Skutari born Msgr. Prennushi, who was born on September 4, 1885, along with 37 companions, will be beatified as martyrs in the square in front of St. Stephen's Cathedral of his birthplace, as Pope Francis announced in a letter to the Albanian Bishops. During the beatification process, the martyrdom of 38 Catholics was established and recognized by the pope.

Archbishop Prennushi entered the Franciscan order in 1900. He studied theology in Salzburg, where he also professed perpetual vows and was ordained in Innsbruck in 1908 as a priest.

Eliminated Church hierarchy

Archbishop Prennushi

With the violent death of Archbishop Prennushi, the diocese of Tirana-Durres remained, like the other Albanian diocese, vacant until the end of the communist dictatorship. Only in December 1992 was a new Chief Shepherd appointed and enthroned after more than 43 years, with Archbishop Rrok Kola Mirdita. Archbishop Mirdita died on 7th December of a stroke. A successor has not yet been appointed.

The beatification rite will be presided over by Cardinal Angelo Amato. The canonization of Mother Teresa of Calcutta is foreseen for September, who was also Albanian.

With Archbishop Prennushi. another bishop, Msgr. Frano Gjini is to be beatified by Lezha (Alessio). Bishop Lezha fell on March 8, 1948, a victim of the communist regime.

Ten percent of Catholics

The other new saints are priests and members of various religious orders, Jesuits, Franciscans, diocesan priests and four lay people, three men and a woman. Almost all the new martyrs are Albanians, two are German, a Jesuit was Italian, plus some Croatian priests. "The missionaries and the Church in Albania had testified to their love for Christ to martyrdom under torture."

The grave of Archbishop Prennuschi is located in St. Lucia Cathedral of Durres.

A good ten percent of Albanians profess the Catholic faith. Once at the beginning of the communist dictatorship, the Catholic hierarchy was eliminated and new appointments to diocese were prevented by Rome, and the full religious prohibition took place in 1967. Only around 20 Catholic priests survived the communist tyranny in the underground or in jail.

Friday, June 17, 2016

(Madrid) While verbal and physical attacks against churches and religious leaders accumulate in the heated election climate in Spain, Pope Francis will meet Pablo Iglesias, the current irrepressible leader of the radical left Spain in September. With this meeting Pope Francis continues his unilateral contacts with representatives of the radical left.

Acts of vandalism against churches and religious institutions, but also verbal attacks against high church officials, have characterized the time before the early Spanish general elections which are to take place on 26 June.

One of the most prominent victims of the attacks is Antonio Cardinal Cañizares, Archbishop of Valencia and former Cardinal Prefect of the Roman Congregation for Divine Worship. In mid-May he had defended the natural family of a man and a woman with children against gender ideology. The cardinal had called "the family founded on marriage," a "precious asset" which need to be defended against attacks. At the same time he criticized the gender ideology as "the most insidious that there has been in the whole of human history."

Since then representatives of the Left parties have romped against the leading church representative.The attacks and the anti-Church propaganda are of such hardness that observers see it as a test run, for those who want to muzzle the Church and silence it. At the same time the same parties are pandering to the followers of Islam.

Among the attackers, there are representatives of the socialist PSOE, which last ruled from 2004-2011 Spain and during this time one of the most liberal abortion laws, which introduced "gay marriage" and muzzling laws that allow freedom of expression was restricted.

The sharpest attacks came from the ranks of the new radical left party Podemos by Pablo Iglesias. The architect of the Party founded in 2014, Juan Carlos Monedero, insulted Cardinal Cañizares as a "Monster" and mocked him by belittling his attitude as "repressed homosexuality". Monedero is a professor at the Pontifical University of Comillas and thus employee of the Church, which make the attacks particularly explosive.

Vatican spokesman has denied meeting with Podemos boss

In the parliamentary elections in December 2015 Podemos with 20.7 percent was straightaway the third strongest. Since formation of a government failed, early elections will be held on 26 June. Podemos has formed part of a list combined with the traditional radical left around the Communist Party of Spain (PCE). Under the name Unidos Podemos, Podemos is forming part of the United Left and Green as a radical leftist united front with the aim, if not then at least to be the strongest force in the country, to be strongest left force before the PSOE, which looks realistic according to opinion polls.

When rumors were circulated that Podemos boss Pablo Iglesias would be received by Pope Francis, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi SJ denied it. It was a denial with a quick expiration date. Directly from the Pope's circle, InfoVaticana has received confirmation that Iglesias, "as planned", will be received next September by Pope Francis.

The incident with the wrong denial further undermines the already fragile authority of Vatican Spokesman, Father Lombardi in this pontificate.

Podemos represents - like the entire radical left - positions to the field of "non-negotiable values" that are in open contradiction to the teaching of the Church. They represent on the subject abortion, artificial insemination, contraception, euthanasia, homosexuality particularly open and radically, a "culture of death".

"Abortion. Podemos promises that the abortion in the public health system will be guaranteed. Likewise, all women will have access to all contraceptive methods. Artificial insemination is available to all women without restriction. "

This deadly opposition to the teaching of the Church and the nature of man does not seem to be disturbing to the Church's head. The precondition for the alliance forged with the radical left was the extensive disposal of "non-negotiable values" in the storeroom of the papal programmatic. It was declared by Pope Francis in September 2013, and so it has since been maintained the Church leader.

Contact by Pope confidant Gustavo Vera

Pope Francis with Gustavo Vera

According InfoVaticana contacts between Iglesias and the Vatican were prepared by Argentine deputies Gustavo Vera, a close friend of Pope Francis. The social activist Vera belonged to 2014 the now broken left-liberal Frente Amplio UNEN . Two years ago he founded the party Bien Común (Common Good). The choice of name go, according to his own account, back to a quote attributed to Pope Francis:

"The power is common good. If it is self-interest, it is corruption."

Vera represents his party in the city council of Buenos Aires.

He met recently with Íñigo Errejón, the Group Chairman of Podemos in the Spanish Congress of Deputies, to discuss the last details for the meeting with Pope Francis.

Errejón's father, José Antonio Errejón, was active in the Maoist Workers Party of Spain (PTE), belonging to the founders of the Greens in the mid-80s and in the mid-90s among the founders of the Anti-Capitalist Left . This leftist group belonged, until 2007 to the Communist led United Left (IU). In 2014 he joined the new radical left party Podemos where his son made ​​a brilliant career.

Sanchez Sorondo: Architect of the Pope's radical left axis

The fine work of the meeting between Podemos boss Iglesias and the pope was accomplished by the Argentine Curial Bishop, Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, who met a few weeks ago with the Mayor of Madrid since June 2015, Manuela Carmena. Carmena belonged to the party which was only legal until after the end of Franco's rule, the Communist Party of Spain (PCE). As a lawyer her membership was dormant until she got a job as a judge in the 80s under the PSOE government of Felipe Gonzalez. In 2015 she was the victorious top candidate of the left electoral alliance Ahora Madrid between Podemos and the PSOE.

With the reception of Pablo Inglesias, Pope Francis continues his intensive international contacts with representatives of the radical left, while ignoring representatives of the political center and right. The architect of the contacts is the Pope's close confidant and Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo.

Sorondo applauded with obvious satisfaction, as the radical left, gay, Italian philosopher, Gianni Vattimo on 13 March 2015 Teatro Cervantes in Buenos Aires in front of all the prominent left radical figures, to form a new Communist International, which he dubbed the "Papal International" because was supposed to be led by Pope Francis.Vattimo said at the time:

"Pope Francis is the only one who is capable of a political, cultural and religious revolution to lead against the superior power of money in the Civil War, which is already raging in the world, and is disguised as 'the fight against terrorism' , but in reality is the class struggle of the 21st century against the large number of the critics of capitalism."

Friday, April 22, 2016

(Beijing) Ding Cumei is the wife of Protestant underground pastor Li Jiangog. The couple was desperate to prevent the destruction of their official Church in the People's Republic of China. One of the workers had been given instructions: "Bury them. I'll take responsibility." The pastor's wife died under the rubble of the church demolished by demolition excavators. Her husband was still able to get out of the rubble.

The gruesome murder took place last April 14 in Zhumadian, Henan Province.Local police arrested two construction workers.Details were not disclosed.The authorities seem to want to avoid any "damaged image" by a cover-up of the bloody incident.

Pastor Li Jiangong and his wife Ding saw the excavator roll in, which had been commissioned by the government to tear down their church. An investor had expressed an interest for the land on which the church stood.

The couple stood against the demolition excavators. A worker ordered his team "to bury" them. .According to eyewitnesses, the backhoe operator had pushed the couple into a pit which was then filled with demolition material and earth. Pastor Li was able to free himself, but could not come to the rescue of his wife.

Ever since the Communist authorities launched an anti-Christianity campaign in 2013 of "urban cleansing" and "economic improvement", 1,700 Christian symbols and dozens of churches have been destroyed just in Zhejiang Province. Church destruction also occurred in the provinces of Hebei, Hubei and Henan. In spring 2013 Xia Baolong, the Communist Party Secretary of Zhejiang Province, declared that there are "too many crosses."

Monday, February 15, 2016

(Rome) On Wednesday Pope Francis celebrated a liturgy for the 1,000 Missionaries of Mercy during the Ash Wednesday. They will go out into the world with the power of being able to forgive those grave sins whose forgiveness is reserved only to the.

Canon 1367: Whoever throws away the consecrated sacrament or for a sacrilegious purpose, steals them or keeps them, incurs latae sententiae excommunication reserved to thethe Holy See: a cleric, moreover, must be subject to a further punishment, the dismissal from the clerical state is not excluded.

Canon 1370.1: A person who uses physical force against the Roman Pontiff incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; if the offender is a cleric, another penalty, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state, may be added according to the gravity of the crime..

Canon 1378.1: A priest who acts against the prescription of Can. 977 incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See..

Canon 977: The absolution of an accomplice in a sin against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue is invalid except in danger of death..

Canon 1382: A bishop who consecrates someone without pontifical mandate to bishop, as well as he who receives the consecration from him, excommunication reserved incurs a latae sententiae reserved by the Holy See.

Canon 1388.1: A confessor who violates the seal of confession directly incurs latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Holy See; but he who violates it only indirectly, he shall be punished according to the gravity of the offense.

Pope Benedict XVI. added with the Motu proprio Norma nonnullas of 22 February, 2013 another crime. The excommunication is latae sententiae, reserved by the Holy See, to anyone who breaks the secrecy of the conclave.

In addition, there are other offenses, of which the individual priest can not absolve, but only the Holy See or the diocesan bishop. This includes the crime of abortion.

Whoever commits any of these offenses, is automatically excommunicated. He himself is excluded by the fact from communion with the Church and is not admitted to the sacraments. That is, he may not even go to confession. If he does so, then the priest must deny him absolution and refer him to the bishop or the Pope. Would the priest nevertheless grant him absolution, this would be null and void.

In order to obtain the possibility of absolution from sin, excommunication must be set aside previously.This can in some cases be accomplished by the competent diocesan bishop, in other cases, only the Pope.

Now Pope Francis with the Missionaries of Charity has issued an authorization to more than a thousand priests around the world, during the Holy Year of Mercy to annul these excommunications, as a condition for re-admission to confession and thus to reconciliation with the Church.

What happens to the seven illicitly consecrated bishops in China?

The Vatican expert Sandro Magister points to a very special case in which the matter may "not be so simple"... "at least for a sin". It involves illicit episcopal ordinations, which were carried out in the PRC.To control the Catholic Church, the communist regime has created a Catholic organization obedient to the regime called the Patriotic Association. The CP has demanded that the bishops and priests renounce Rome and are required to pledge their loyalty to the regime, while loyalty to the Pope and the Church is persecuted as "subservience to a foreign power."

The Beijing government, therefore, officially determines who are bishops in mainland China. Although these appointments are not recognized by Rome, the regime allows the episcopal ordinations , mostly bishops of the regime, while bishops loyal to Rome are forced to participate.

Currently, there are at least seven such bishops who were ordained without papal permission. They have undertaken more illicit ordinations. Anyone who participates in such an illicit ordination is automatically excommunicated.

This includes:

Zhan Silu, bishop of Mindong (Fujian), consecrated in 2000

Ma Yinglin, Bishop of Kunming (Yunnan) and President of the Chinese Bishops' Council, the variant of the Episcopal Conference loyal to the regime, consecrated in 2006

Liu Xinhong, Bishop of Wuhu (Anhui), consecrated in 2006

Guo Jincai, Bishop of Chengde (Hebei), consecrated 2010

Lei Shiyin, Bishop of Leshan (Sichuan), consecrated in 2011

Huang Bingzhang, Bishop of Shantou (Guangdong), consecrated in 2011

Yue Fusheng, Bishop of Harbin (Heilongjiang), consecrated in 2012

Among the more than 1,000 Missionaries of Mercy there is only one Chinese officially notified: Father Luigi Bonalumi from Hong Kong of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME). However, he only speaks the Cantonese spoken mainly in southern China, not Mandarin. Cantonese is only spoken by about six percent of Chinese. He will also, according to the official statement, exercise his authority only in the Diocese of Hong Kong.

Lifting of the excommunication of illicit episcopal ordinations remains reserved to the pope

On February 9 Curial Archbishop Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization and coordinator of the Holy Year has given the Missionaries of Charity written instructions. They show that they can forgive all sins mentioned in the Pope's name, except one: the forgiveness of an illicit episcopal ordination remains exclusively reserved for the Pope in the Holy Year.

Father Bernardo Cervellera, PIME, the chief of the press portal AsiaNews , has recalled how such cases have proceeded so far. The Holy See demanded of excommunicated bishops that they send a letter to the Pope, setting out their situation, including an admission of guilt by recognizing the responsibility of any wrongdoing, and asking for forgiveness.

Then the Holy See asks of the bishops, to make a public gesture and ask the faithful for forgiveness for the scandal they have caused them.

Dilemma of visible reconciliation

This was particularly true for those bishops who were more or less forced to take part in illicit episcopal ordinations. More problematic is the reintegration of illicitly consecrated bishops themselves. It is difficult to say they have been forced to episcopal dignity.

They are also exposed at a reconciliation with Rome to an even higher probability of reprisals and persecution. Quitting the Patriotic Association is a mandatory step and is understood by the Communist Party as an attack on their authority. The Beijing regime would, as it has so often accused the Vatican in the past, of "interference in internal affairs".

For the situation of such a bishop in the Patriotic Association, the faithful have had reason to doubt the sincerity of his reconciliation.

The Holy Year of Mercy should probably have initially no effect on the painful question of episcopal ordinations in the People's Republic of China. Pope Francis attempted a " rapprochment" of a different kind a few days ago by offering flowers to the Beijing regime and excluded the question of episcopal appointments, the Underground Church, the persecution of Christians and human rights. Reactions from Beijing are not yet known.

Worthy Initiative

Purpose

This is a polemical Catholic Royalist blog. It will also attempt to provide a window onto various events, situations and personalities not generally or favorably presented to the purview of the general public in the English speaking world. It also hopes to be a bridge for those who wish to cross over, unite and fight for the truth.